Izzie's Rain
by krissyg927
Summary: This is an angstfest, but I never write an unhappy ending. Eventual CARYL, but this is about someone he meets before her. I hope you all will like this though. This is Daryl/OFC and Daryl/Carol. I don't usually write angst, but here we are.
**A/N: I don't know where this came from but I wrote it as it came to me. I hope you enjoy, special thank you to Magenta's Nighmare for helping me out as usual I love you babe. xoxoxox Krissy.**

Izzie's Rain

Her name was Isabelle; he knew that much because he watched her sometimes. They had spoken a few words to each other in the one or two classes they had together, but he doubted she knew his name. He knew hers though, all of them.

The instructor in their philosophy class always called her Bella and she always corrected him, "I'm Izzie she would say" and Daryl always smiled at that. He liked that she corrected him every single time, no matter how smooth the professor though her was. Bella, Bella beautiful, Bella the man would say and she stopped him every time.

She would not allow anyone to call her Bella, she was Izzie.

Isabelle was a girl with a mind of her own and she did what she wanted, in that free spirit type of way that attracted him so much to her.

She had long dark hair and beautiful green eyes and he loved her. As much as you could love someone you didn't know at all. But what he knew of her, he loved with all his heart.

He knew she had a butterfly tattoo on her ankle and her tongue pierced, Merle had said once that kissing someone with a piercing like that was hot as fuck and he wanted to know so badly, what it would be like to kiss her.

He was satisfied to know her from afar though, he just didn't think she even noticed him.

When she walked it seemed like she floated and she was never without a group of people around her, so he could never approach her. His sister Tara told him over and over again to grow a set and talk to her and so did Merle, the eldest of the three of them, but he couldn't.

Daryl was shy and she was everything.

He just watched her from the sidelines until one day in April in their second semester of classes. That was the day his whole life changed. The day she became more than a girl that floated by him in the hallway, and became the girl he would never forget.

Daryl could never forget Izzie, because of Emily. Emily tethered him to Izzie forever, no matter what happened.

The little girl always wanted to hear the story, and he was always happy to tell her. Sometimes Carol sat with them and sometimes she didn't. She was for all intents and purposes Emily's mother, had been since she was two years old, but sometimes she wanted them to have time alone to remember Izzie.

It seemed right to her.

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Tara, Merle and Daryl were all students at Georgia tech and ate lunch together under the trees in between classes every day. They had been doing that on nice days all year long, as did most of the students. Who wanted to be in the student Center when the sun was out? Certainly not them.

Daryl's eyes always looked around for her, searched for her, because she sat by the fountain at lunch time with her friends. He spotted her soon enough, in the usual spot and on that day she had taken off her boots and jumped into the fountain in her dress.

He didn't know if someone dared her or she was just hot that day, but watching the water rain down on her and the bright smile she wore made his heart skip in his chest.

He had never literally had his breath taken away from looking at a girl before. She held her arms out and let the water rain down on her as if she was part of the fountain. He couldn't look away.

"That girl is just crazy enough to date a Dixon." Tara said to him as she leaned over to sip he soda. "You don't ask her out, I will."

"She's straight, little sister." Daryl replied, watching her climb out of the fountain, her cotton dress damp and he could hear her laughing all the way across the commons. "But I hear the Spanish bombshell over there likes girls sometimes."

He motioned over towards the group by the fountain. Tara knew Rosita, but that wasn't a vibe she was getting from her at all. Still, she was considering this when Merle came up behind them.

"Why don't you two just arm wrestle for her." Merle cackled from behind them. "Neither one of you got the stones."

Merle huffed and started to walk towards where she sat with her friends, there were four people around her and Merle knew them all. Andrea Harrison, Rosita Espinoza, Maggie Green and Glenn Rhee. Daryl and Tara watched as he spoke to the group and Isabelle smiled and looked over towards them. She waved a single that they should come join the group.

And that was how Merle stepped in and got his brother's foot in the door with Isabelle Baker. From that day on they all ate by the fountain together and Izzie jumped in on occasion if it was really hot out and she didn't have a class to go to.

Daryl called it Izzie's rain, even before he met her properly, because there was nothing more beautiful to him then her face when the water rained down on her.

Tara had gotten up to leave after lunch, which was filled with great conversation between all of them, but she had to go. She was late to class and unlike her brothers her classes were clear across campus. Tara was saying goodbye to everyone and then Merle spoke up, loud enough for her to hear.

"So Rosita, you wanna go out sometime? "Merle said to her with in Tara's ear shot, and he watched as his sister's eye quirked at him and she stopped walking away.

"Merle, I think you're a great guy, but…" Rosita said as she looked over at Tara. "I'd rather go out with you Tara."

Tara suddenly had nowhere important to go and sat her ass right back down next to Izzie and Daryl. Merle sat down next to Andrea, who was the true reason he walked over there. _Merle had his own door to get his foot into that day, Daryl and Tara just facilitated it._

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 _That day Isabelle got on the back of Daryl's motorcycle after class and they were seldom seen apart after that._

She was a photography major and was always holding her camera and everyone around her just got used to her snapping pictures of them. One day _Daryl took a picture of her_ , in the fountain of course. Her hands were reaching up to the sky on a bright sunny day and she was laughing, her eyes merry and bright. She had on her favorite green dress and her beloved Doc Marten's boots sat on the ledge of the fountain, clear as day in the picture.

The water was coming down over her like rain and she was so happy that day. _They were so happy._ There weren't ever many pictures of her, because she preferred to stay on the other side of the lens, but that one made it.

That picture sat on Emily's dresser all her life. Emily wore her boots now that she was old enough and in her closet that green dress hung as well.

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As they got to know each other over time, Izzie told him about growing up in the orphanage after her own mother abandoned her in a park at birth. A jogger had found her and if he hadn't, even though it was summertime, she would have died. She had no one in the world and at nineteen she had aged out of the system and lived alone.

She worked two jobs and went to college, desperate to make her mark in the world.

Yet she still had a smile for everyone, and a gratitude for life that was contagious to everyone around her. If he loved her from afar for almost a year, once he got to know her, he knew he would never love anyone the way he loved her.

She might have even been his first love, he certainly was hers. It turned out that she had noticed him too, long before he ever walked up to her.

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"I'm pregnant." She said and he hugged her and picked her right up off the ground one day after they had been together a while. They were young and they hardly knew each other really, but he was thrilled beyond belief. He was going to be a father.

"No more darkroom for you Isabelle." He said kissing her, she always let him call her Isabelle if he was being serious. "Those chemicals aren't hurting my girls."

She laughed. "How do you know it's a girl?"

"I just do." He smiled at her. "I want you to come live with us now, no more hiking up five flights of stairs to that shit apartment, ok?"

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Then one day when she was six months pregnant, there was a lump and a biopsy and talk about cancer. Merle and Andrea had just gotten married and Daryl was going to ask Izzie, he wanted to make an honest woman out of her. Merle had been teasing him about having a pregnant girlfriend and why didn't he just marry her.

But he didn't get the chance to ask her and somehow he knew he never would get the chance.

"You have to take the chemo." He said pulling her around to face him that day out on the back porch of their house. "The doctor said it can't wait, its stage four Isabelle."

"It'll hurt the baby."

Merle, Andrea and Tara stood in the kitchen trying not to listen to their brother pleading with her to save her life.

"I don't care; I want you to live." He pleaded. "We can have other babies."

Even as he spoke the words he knew her mind was made up. They would not have any other babies, just this one.

"I can't do that, you know why." She said rubbing her stomach. "I can't hurt her."

He pulled her close to him. "I can't lose you, I can't."

"You know what I'm going to do, you knew as soon as the doctor started talking to us."

He nodded. "Of course I knew…" His voice trailed off in defeat, he did know. Isabelle would never harm a child, not ever.

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"I can't breathe without you." He laid his head in her lap, she was so thin and bony and none of her clothes fit anymore. Emily was five weeks old and Izzie was on Morphine now, and it wouldn't be long at all. Merle and Tara watched from the door way in silence as Daryl sat on their bed with her.

"You have to, you have to learn, for her." She handed the baby to him. "I won't be here and you have to do this."

She looked over at her brother and sister, even if it was never legal, it was in the heart. "You'll help him, won't you?"

They both nodded and she smiled a weak smile.

"Isabelle." He looked at her, trying not to cry or upset her. "I love you so much, always have."

She wrapped her arms around him and Emily. "And I love you, I have always loved you."

"This isn't fair Iz, it's not."

"Life isn't fair Daryl, no one ever said it would be." She looked up at him. "Cancer kills indiscriminately, mother's leave their babies to die. It's a terrible world and you made it so much better for me."

He had no words, maybe for the first time in his life. He was trying, still to make peace with it. He understood her reasons and even though they were taking her away from him now, he knew she could never have done this any other way.

She stroked her baby's head, knowing time was short now. "Get married someday Daryl, you're too good a man to be alone."

"I wanted to marry you."

She smiled at him. "And I wanted to marry you."

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Daryl walked up behind Carol as she washed dishes in the sink and put his arms around her. He kissed the back of her neck like he always did and held her close, just inhaling her scent and savoring her. She had saved him, saved both of them, he was drowning before she came along and he loved her completely.

They had been married for twelve years and it was like they were newlywed still; he had done as Izzie asked him to.

Carol had taken him and Emily on and made a life for them, if Izzie could have picked a partner for him he was sure she would have picked Carol. Somewhere he knew she was happy for them and approved.

"Emily wants to meet at the diner later, that ok sweetheart?"

"Sure, It's better that way now that she's older." Carol said, turning around to look at him and he laid his hands on her hips.

"You aren't upset? You used to come with us?"

"She's older now, she needs you to herself for this, I'll meet you later." Carol said. "I'm meeting Tara and Rosita to go shopping any way, I'll be fine."

"You're the best." He hugged her to him. "I don't know what I would do without you."

She reached down and took his hand. "You'll never have to know."

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"Can we go in now, Dad?" She said as they stood there holding hands just like they did every time. They came here a few times a year, on special days, Emily's birthday August 10th and Izzie's birthday June 1st and every time they took off their shoes and stepped into the fountain. The water was cool on their feet, but invigorating.

Today wasn't anyone's birthday it was April 19th, the day Merle strolled across the commons and over to Isabelle and changed all their lives forever. That day was still so clear in his mind, even though it was so long ago, and he smiled at the memory.

He had just told Emily the story again, as they stood there, she wanted to hear it and he would keep telling her as long as she wanted him to.

Then Daryl and his fifteen-year-old daughter raised their arms up into the air and felt Izzie's Rain come down upon them.

 **Thank you all for reading, please let me know what you think.**


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